Well, good morning, guys. It is a cold morning. We had ice on the roof, but I'd rather have ice on the roof than it is, well, it's frost, but I'd rather have that than on the road. But yeah, thank you guys for coming here. being here with us for our second week going through this seven-week Bible study of Commit to One Another, which is about church membership and really the need for it. That's what we looked at last week, the need for church membership. Why should a Bible-believing Christian Why should a Christian join a Bible-believing local New Testament church? It's because, one, it helps us to not be hardened toward our own sin, right? We looked at that last week. There are many practical kind of benefits of being part of a church, but more important than just practical benefits of being able to fellowship and everything is the spiritual benefits that come with it. This week, we are going to be looking at the mandate for church membership. One of the things that comes, especially now, there are many – there are actual churches, like groups of churches that actually do not practice church membership. They don't practice church membership. They don't believe it's biblical. They don't see the application for it, and so a lot of churches don't practice church membership. I think Cavalry Chapel is one of them, and so they don't practice church membership over there from my understanding. But we're going to be looking at the mandate for church membership, and really we're going to be looking to answer the question, is church membership biblical? It's something we've been practicing for centuries, really, and we've been practicing it for centuries because it is found in the Bible, right? And so one reason some people don't join a church is because they think that church membership is not in the New Testament. And some churches don't have formal memberships because they don't see it in the New Testament. And then this is like the million dollar question, guys. We can, there's a million dollar question. We can say all we want about the benefit to church membership or the need for church membership, but we can only say that Christians must be members of local churches if it says it in the scriptures, if it says it in the Bible, right? We follow the word of God, right? If the word of God says it, we as Christians, we follow it. That's the way it is. And then, so we need to understand that we look to scripture to answer these questions. So I'm gonna open us up in a word of prayer before we go any further, and just pray that, one, that God will help me to teach this lesson, but also that God would open our hearts, soften our hearts toward what God's word has for us today. Father God, we come before you. We thank you, Lord, for this day. Lord, we come before you with one confession, that we are your servants, that we are your children, that you are our Lord. Father, I know that right now some of us are meeting here with heavy hearts, with, Lord, just many things going on in our lives. a lot of hurt, a lot of uncertainty, a lot of confusion. And Lord, I just pray, Lord, that you would just, right now, you would just minister to each and every one of us and the things that we are going through, that you would show us your goodness, that you would give us your peace that surpasses all understanding as we come before you and bring our petitions up to you. Lord, I just pray, Lord, that you would just give them peace. Pray, Lord, you would comfort them. I pray, Lord, that you would strengthen their faith, and pray, Lord, you would help us to strengthen one another as a church. Father God, we love you, and we thank you so much for all your many blessings. In the mighty name of Jesus, I pray, and amen. So that's the million dollar question. Is church membership biblical? So in this lesson, we're going to consider this question. Is church membership biblical, right? And the question here, I'm just gonna go right out of the gate. Is church membership biblical? Yes, it is. It is biblical. We see it in scripture. Not that we see the actual phrase, right? You're not gonna see the actual phrase church membership put in there, right? You don't see it put into the book of Acts after they baptized 3000 people that say, 3,000 people join the Jerusalem church. You don't read that. But we see the nuances of how the church functions. And one of the nuances is that they know each other, right? They know who's part of their church. There's an inside and an out. We see church membership in a number of passages in the New Testaments, which teach that churches have an inside and an outside. There's a distinction between who is inside of the church, who is part of the church, and who is outside of the church. Church members are expected to know who does and who does not belong to the church. Christians are under the authority of the church, such that if they persist in unrepentant sin, they are to be excluded from it. That's the passage we're about to read right now. So there is accountability put in there. Christians are told to submit to their leaders, which gives up our autonomy, putting ourselves under the church's authority. Now, that's a big one. that people have a huge problem with. I just want to say, when I was a member of a church, I submitted myself to my pastor. That means like when our pastor had something going on, I was part of it. Why? Because I was helping my pastor in doing ministry. I submitted to him in what... in various different ways, but it was never like a submission, like he was over my life, right? It gets like, there are some churches that get really weird. There was a friend who told me that her dad is a pastor of a church, I think in Rock Springs or something like that. I can't remember the name of the town, but the previous pastor there was very weird about … his involvement in his members' lives to the point where a widow bought a house, and then he asked her why she did that without consulting the church. And so that's weird. That's not what I'm talking about. But we see that in scripture. So we see there's an inside, there's an outside. We see that members know one another. We see that there's accountability in the church. We also see that there are leaders that they follow in the church, right? We also see that leaders will give an account for those entrusted to their care. Again, how can a shepherd like myself can be accountable to the care of the flock if The flock is just anybody who wants to come, right? They're not part of it, they're not part of the flock, right? And a shepherd needs to know them. And so leaders will be held accountable for those entrusted in their care, which means that they have to know the people who they're caring for, right? We see all of these nuances in the New Testament of the fact that there is community in the church, right? In fact, when you go through Acts 2, verses 42-47, it's very much the way that Luke words it, is as if the church, again, they're a body, they're all together, they know one another, they're taking care of one another, eating together and all that kind of stuff, but you also see that they said they were they were pleased and they were almost accepted by both God and man. It's like someone's from the outside looking in, right? So that is one of the nuances there. So in the study, it will be important to keep in mind our definition of church membership that we learned last week, right? Last week we learned the definition of church membership. Church membership is a covenant That is a formal agreement, right? When someone joins the church, they join us, they affirm our church covenant and our statement of faith, right? You have to do that in order to join a church. Why? Because we want people who join Pathway or churches that practice this, they want people who join to affirm the faith, right? Affirm the church covenant. We have a church covenant, right? It's in our bylaws and everything like that. And so it's a formal agreement between the local church and that Christian, in which the Christian affirms the church's profession of faith and promises to oversee the Christian's discipleship, and the Christian promises to gather… and submit to the church. Thus, when we say church membership is biblical, we don't claim that there's an exact copy of any church's membership practices, which may include a new members class, an interview, or so on in the New Testament. Rather, the New Testament clearly shows that churches are to have this kind of formal belonging that all Christians are to commit themselves to a local church in this way. We're all called to be part of a local church, right? So based on this definition of church membership, what power does the church have? That is, what teeth does it have for ensuring that members submit to the church? What consequences can be imposed? And now, again, this is language that is very unpopular right now, right? Very much so the spirit of today is very much the spirit of how it has been growing since You know, 60s, 70s, it's just progressing, right, is that thing of authority doesn't matter. No one is an authority over me, right? And again, I'm not saying that you're under the church's thumb or they're in your lives in such a way that they know every step that you make. That's not what I'm talking about here. But what I am talking about is the fact that membership means something. Membership means something here. And let's just rewind back to where there were churches in the first century. It was a big deal when a church – When you were put under church discipline, when you were confronted about sin in the church, why? Because that was the only church in town. And a lot of the times when you became a Christian, especially if you were a Jew, you were ostracized by your family. You were considered almost dead to them sometimes. It's almost like when a Christian converts from Hinduism. from Hinduism to Christianity. It's someone that converts from that. A lot of times their families will disown them. Same thing in Islamic nations. And a lot of times when we're looking at the context here, the local church and being a part of it a lot of times is the family for those Christians. That's their family. Their other families have disowned them, abandoned them. This is my family now. And so church members should be meaningful, not just in how we love one another, but also how we treat our membership in a church. It's very important. And so does the New Testament teach membership? Many people claim that church membership is not taught in the New Testament. So we're going to test that claim by seeing how it stacks up with a few New Testament passages. First, consider 1 Corinthians 5, a passage that is very important for our understanding and practice of church discipline. And really this is one of the things that a church ought to be practicing. Many churches don't practice this, but it's something that is very important, especially when it comes to church membership. Because think of it like this, you're not going to step out on your spouse because you have made a covenant with them and there's ratifications for that. When a Christian is engrossed in unrepentant sin, it's a lot like that. They have decided not to follow, they've decided their sin is more precious to them than the church, and they're not going to be told otherwise, which is, that's destructive. But one of the things that we're gonna see here is the fact that in this passage, which is really about church discipline, it actually shows us that there's an inside, there's an out, they know each other. They're a part of something. And so let's go ahead and read that passage. So that's in 1 Corinthians 5. We're gonna read verses one through five. And so let's go ahead and read that. It is actually... It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and the kind of sexual immorality that's not even tolerated among the Gentiles. This is Paul talking to the Corinthian church. A man is sleeping with his father's wife, and you are arrogant. Shouldn't you be filled with grief and remove from your congregation the one who did this? Even though I am absent in the body, I am present in the spirit. As one who is presented with you in this way, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who has been doing such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus, and I am with you in spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus, hand that one over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that his soul may be saved in the day of the Lord. And so that is what Paul says there. Then, after urging the Corinthian church to deal with this ongoing sin in this member's life so that it doesn't spread through the church, Paul writes in In 9 through 13, he actually says this, I wrote to you a letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. I do not mean the immoral people of this world or the greedy, the swindlers or idolaters. Otherwise, you would have to leave the world. But I actually wrote to you, wrote you not to associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister and is in sexual immoral or greedy. an idolater or verbally abusive, a drunkard, a swindler? Do not even eat with such a person. For what business is it of mine to judge outsiders? Don't you judge those who are inside? God judges outsiders. Remove the evil person from among you." Again, very strong language here, but we see here, one, we see an inside and out. Paul's saying, hey, what business is of mine to judge someone who's not in the church, right? To cast judgment on that, to actually hold a person accountable. So that's what he's actually talking about. He's like, who am I to hold somebody who's not part of the church accountable? They're not part of the flock. They're not part of the church. And we see those things like judge, these things like, and I love how the Bible, it doesn't shy away from this language because right now we live in a world where you can't judge anybody until they can judge you. That's the standard, right? You can't judge them until they can judge you, right? When really we make judgment calls all the time. We make judgments on people all the time, right? You watch the news and you watch a politician and you disagree, you call them a swindler, a no good, whatever, that's casting judgment. That's what it is, basically. But, so we see there's an inside, there's an out, there's accountability. There's a need for a standard for those who are in the Corinthian church, right? This is a nuance of what we see in the New Testament of church membership. You can't put somebody out of the church. And then again, they're not kicking them out. What it was doing is like, you need to withdraw fellowship from this person so that he can come back to the faith, which I believe in second Corinthians, he actually does. But what he is saying here, is we see the nuance here is there's an inside, there's an outside. They know each other's accountability. There is a sense of not submitting to the authority of the elders in the church. And so we see that here in 2 Corinthians. And I'll be honest with you, out of a lot of people that I see talk about churches, they really don't bring up 1 Corinthians 5 a whole lot, but it needs to be. One, because it shows the duty of a church. but also shows the fact that these people know each other. They're in. They're in community. They do hold each other accountable. They do submit to authorities. They do serve the Lord together. So if the Corinthian church didn't practice church membership, could they exclude someone from their membership as Paul instructs them to do? Keep in mind, Paul assumes that outsiders will be present in the in the church's meaning. A church has power of formal church discipline or excommunication, whatever word you want to use there, as we'll consider momentarily in 1 Corinthians 5. And so the answer to this question is no. If the Corinthian church didn't practice church membership to begin with, Paul's instruction to them to exclude someone from their fellowship, to purge the evil person from among them, would make no sense, right? Because if there's no membership, they don't know anybody, right? There's not a covenant between them. There's no way that they, it makes sense to say, exclude this person from your membership or your fellowship. It wouldn't make no sense. There's no means by which a persons are excluded in the church. If, sorry, if there's no means by which someone people are included in the church, rather, there is no way for them to be excluded, right? So we see church membership right there. In the context of church discipline, we see membership. You can't exclude somebody if they're not part of it in the first place. And so notice that Paul gives different instructions about how the Corinthians are to treat those who are inside of the church and those who are outside in verses nine through 13. If the Corinthian church didn't practice membership, how could they have known who was inside and who was outside? Again, if the Corinthian church didn't have church membership, there's no way that they would know who was on the inside and who was on the outside of the church. After all, a church membership is simply a formal public way of an individual committing to a church and the church committing to that individual. There is no such thing as church membership. If there is no such thing as church membership, then there's no meaningful way to speak of the church having an inside and an outside. But as we see in these verses, not only did the Corinthian church have an inside and an outside, but Paul expected the church to know who belonged to the church and who didn't, right? And we look back to Acts. How could they have known the widows to take care of when they raised up the first deacons? They had to have known who they were, right? They had to have known. In fact, another thing that kind of points to church membership is this, that the people complained that their widows were being overlooked in the daily distributions to the apostles, to the elders there, right? One, that shows a structure. They knew who to go to. And two, when they actually fixed the problem, they knew who was being neglected. They knew who was part of their church. In fact, when you go into the description of the early church in Acts 2, it says that they sold their lands, they sold their properties, and gave to as anyone had need. Was that just anybody randomly in Jerusalem? No, it was people in the church. You can't be generous to people that are not part of you, right? Not in a specific way. The churches do outreaches all the time where they help the homeless, where they help in disaster relief. But what it's talking about in Acts chapter 2 is a very specific people group that they're helping, which is the people inside of the church. So not just in the discipline of us that we see church membership take place, but it's also in our generosity and our love toward each other. And so what do you think? So what do you think? Did the Corinthian church practice church membership? I think the answer is yes. I think the answer is yes, they did practice church membership. I mean, there's no getting around it, right? You can't put somebody under church discipline if they're not part of the church. You cannot restore anybody to the church if they're not part of the church. You cannot know if someone's inside or outside of the church if there's no, sense of you know who's part of it, right? So based on this passage, do you think that churches should have church membership today? Why or why not? So based on this passage, do you guys think that churches today should have church membership? Yes, okay. Why do you think so, Brother Brown? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And, you know, going back to last week, there's a need for it. You know, we build each other up and you can't build each other up in a significant way if you don't know one another, you don't know each other's hurts, you don't know what's going on in your lives, right? And a church is a place where we come to grow in our faith, right? And to serve God together, right? I look at the book of Acts and I see even Paul going to plant churches in the Gentile world you realize that he was sent out of the Jerusalem church. He didn't go like, I'm a Christian, I'm gonna start planning churches. He was sent out, right? He and Barnabas were given the right hand of fellowship, right? And then when they said, hey, we're gonna go to the Gentile nations, they said, hey, just don't forget about the poor and the widows. And he goes on to say that he never did. But the thing is, they sent them out. You know, so he was part of a, they were a part of a church, they were sent out of a church. And so again, we see that even serving the Lord in the context of the New Testament is you're part of the church. When Philip witnessed to the Ethiopian eunuch, he was part of the Jerusalem church. He was one of the people that I believe rose up as a deacon. When Stephen went to go preach, he was a deacon of that Jerusalem church. He was a member, he was part of it. So we say, even in our service to the Lord, we do so in the context of the local church. That means that you can't do anything without the local church to say, so no, there are plenty of people who do ministry outside of the local church, but make no mistake, primarily you and me are to serve God in the context together with our church. We don't Lone Ranger this thing, right? We don't serve God like the Lone Ranger. In fact, even the Lone Ranger, had his buddy with him. Can't remember his name. Tonto, there it is. But again, this question calls for personal reflection. This goal for participants to understand that practicing church membership is the only way to be faithful to Paul's teaching in this passage. Since he instructs the Corinthians to exclude a radically immoral person, he was sleeping with his father's wife, Churches today should do the same. And since he instructs them to treat those who are inside the church differently from those who are outside the church, we are compelled to obey those same instructions. This means that our church must practice church membership. I'm just gonna say, if there's a guest in here, right, they're not part of the church, I have very little say-so in speaking into their lives, confronting them about sin, because they're not part of the flock. It's a different story when somebody in the church is in sin and we have to confront them, right? Paul tells us we're to treat these two people groups, these two groups differently, right? And so we see that again, church membership, it's right there. And so, let's consider another passage really quick, guys. Hebrews 13, verse 17. The author gives us a very important teaching about how Christians are to relate to their leaders, to the church. He writes, who will have an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you." I remember when I was, again, before I was a pastor, just a member of a church, I would strive to make sure that my pastor could have a good account. could give an account of how we watched over my soul with joy, meaning I was very careful not to, one, I was very careful not to misrepresent our church, not misrepresent Jesus. I wanted my pastor to stand before God and say he was a joy to shepherd, right? That was my goal. I wanted to be someone that my pastor would stand before God and said it was a joy to shepherd him, not groan, although there were times where I'm sure I've made my pastor groan, right? But what does this author instruct Christians to submit to? Again, we look at church membership. There can't be membership. There can't be a togetherness in the church if there's not leaders in the church, and we know that God has given leaders in the church, right, for the equipping of the body, right, to lead them so they won't be babies in the face, so they won't be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine that comes from false teachers, right? They've given us authority, right? They've given pastors and elders in the church a certain amount of authority for Christians to submit to. Again, when I was a Christian, I was part of a church. I submitted to my leaders. I submitted to them and I did so with joy. And there were times where I disagreed with them, but even then I voiced my disagreement and we had a conversation about it. But the thing about it is, is like, I would never ever backstab my pastors. That was a thought that never crossed my mind, right? I'm not saying that's happening here. I'm just saying that I know what it's like when I read a passage that says, submit to your leaders. I know what that's like. And I'm going to tell you, it's a joyful thing if you're under a biblical leader. See, this is all under kind of the assumption that this is going on in a biblical church with a biblical leader that's not overstepping, that's not abusive, that's not all of the things that a leader should not be. But does this mean that we are to submit to all church leaders? See, if there's no church membership, you read this verse, it's like, submit to your leaders. Does that mean I submit to Joel Olsteen in Lakewood Church? No, it doesn't, right? So if there's no church membership and it says submit to your leaders, well, what does that mean? The author tells the Christian to submit to your leaders. While there is a sense in while Christians should respect all those who are true Christian leaders, Christians are not commanded to submit to all church leaders everywhere. We know all church leaders ain't built the same way. So we're not called to submit to all leaders everywhere, but only to those whom they have personally identified with and committed themselves to the church and submitting to the church's authority. Make no mistake, when you join a church, that's what you're doing. You are agreeing with the church covenant. You're taking up the church covenant, the statement of faith, and you're willing to say, this is my church. This is my pastor. I'm going to follow him. You become part of the flock. And so, you know, And just so you guys know, I'm a sheep too, right? I'm an under-shepherd. I'm a sheep that follows the great shepherd. That's all I am, right? and I shepherd in a way that's going to glorify God. But we see that, in other words, Christians are to submit to those who lead the church they are a member of, right? So again, church membership. You can't accurately, you can't faithfully fulfill Hebrews 13, 17 if the passage is telling you to submit to all leaders, because not all leaders agree on everything. So imagine a situation in which an elder of a church is faithfully preaching God's word, and he confronts a sin in your life that you don't want to address. How is this situation different for you if you are a member versus a non-member? As I was studying this, I got excited about this question. I did youth ministry. I love these kinds of questions. It gets people thinking. So imagine a situation where an elder of the church is faithfully preaching God's word, and he confronts you about your sin. So this guy, he's not a dictator, he's not spiritually abusive, but he's preaching God's word, he's doing everything he's supposed to do, right? That's the context. And he confronts you about a sin in your life that you don't want to address. How does this situation differ, right? How is the situation different if you're a member versus a non-member? Right. You're not under the pastor's leadership. You're not under the pastor's authority if you're not a member. Again, this is kind of jostling, especially in the culture that we're in today, where very much the culture is, I can do whatever I want and no one can tell me otherwise. Until somebody does something that I don't like, and then I'm going to tell them not to do that thing. Right? That double standard. So he's right. There's a difference. Just as Paul says in our first Corinthians passage, You don't, he's like, what authority, what power, what right do I have to judge or to hold accountable those outside of the church? He doesn't, we don't. Holding people accountable, when we read verses like in Matthew 18, Matthew 7, it's talking about inside the context of a church, inside the context of a congregation of believers. We're not to go up to everybody and do Matthew 18 to anybody who walks the street, okay? You don't go up to the guy in Walmart and then start rebuking him for your sins. He doesn't even know you, okay? That's not, that's weird. Don't do that. But all that stuff is in the context of a church. So, and so, In the scenario in which a church elder is faithfully preaching God's word, he confronts a sin in your life that you don't want to address. If you're a non-member, you can simply walk away with no strings attached. There's no real consequences, right? Because you're not part of this church. You're not part of this congregation. You're trying out the waters, if you want to say it like that. There are people who go to church. I know people who go to three different churches a Sunday because they like the worship here. They like the preaching there. and they just like the people in another one. And that's so weird to me. Um, but if you are, if you've committed yourself to the church again, when we say, Hey, you see, I want to be a member of the church. Someone new says, I'm going to be, I want to be a member of pathway. Then the thing about it is this, like you, it's like, this is our church covenant. Do you affirm this? Do you hold this up? This is our statement of faith. Do you agree with it? And then what's happening is like, when we join a church, we're committing ourselves to the church as a member. You have to, but if you're committed yourself to the church as a member, you have to address your sin. You can't simply run off to another church where they won't confront you because the whole church has committed to holding you accountable to live according to the gospel. And you've submitted yourselves to the church's oversight, which is by the way, everybody. A lot of this time, when we think about church discipline, we think about, it's just me, right? No, we're holding all of each other accountable to live according to the gospel. The Bible tells us that we need to live worthy of the gospel, which means we are to live in a way that is going to accurately represent that we are saved, born again believers, right? And so when we think about that, we think, well, why is that important? There are so many people who have been turned off by Christianity because of the lifestyle of a believer. And that's a fact. And so we're all holding each other accountable. I said last week, the Bible says if I'm found in sin, I'm to be rebuked publicly, right? I'm to be, you guys are to rebuke me publicly. And I told Montana the other day while we were having lunch, don't flinch because that's what the Bible tells us to do. And that's right and good. And too many times leaders have, Christian leaders have well-known Christian leaders, and it breaks my heart, have shown us a pattern of sweeping sin under the rug, pretending like it's not there. And so that is the change in that scenario versus being a member and not a member. While this lack of freedom and autonomy seems scary, it's actually God's ordained means for helping us to grow in godliness and overcome our sin. Remember our previous study. Sin is deceitful. Sin is hardening. That's why we need to be committed and accountable to a church, so that the church as a whole can expose our sin and keep us accountable to repent of it. Let's look at the question from another angle. Who are the church leaders to give an account for? We look at that passage in Hebrews. Who are the church leaders supposed to give an account for? For. I give an account to God, but who do I give an account for? Your flock, right? For you guys. I'm held to be accountable for you guys. Yes, exactly, because I'm going to stand before God, and as Hebrews 13, 17 says, for they are keeping watch over souls as they who will have to give an account. I have to give an account to God at the end of my life of how I shepherded pathway. That's reality. So we look at it from another angle. How are church leaders supposed to be, how are church leaders supposed to know who they are to give an account for if there's no church membership? Basically one aspect of, sorry, who are church leaders to give an account for? Those whose souls they are to watch over. If you wander into a church once in a while, Sorry, if you wander into a church once in a while, aren't accountable to the church, and never commit yourself to the church, it would be quite a stretch to say that the church leaders are watching over you, right? That's why we're part of a church. So one, we watch out for one another. The leaders watch out for you. Again, if they're biblical, if they're actually being a faithful shepherd of Jesus. And so we're to give an account for that. We are to give an account of the, as shepherds to give an account for the churches that we pastor, right? And so, how would we summarize the relationship between a member and submission to church leaders? Can you truly submit to a church's leaders without joining the church? Basically one aspect of becoming a member of a church is submitting to the church's leader. That's what you're doing by joining the church. Whereas if you never joined the church, by definition, you are not submitting to its leaders. And really this comes to the confusion of church membership, right? Some people treat church membership like it's a, a Sam's club membership, right? I'll use it sometimes maybe for certain things, but you know, when I need to get bulk stuff, but usually I go to H-E-B, right? That's how some people treat church membership. Whereas church membership is you joining this church. Church membership is you guys choosing to join this church, be a part of this flock. And that means with the leadership in all. That's why joining a church is not a light thing. It should be done with prayerfulness. It should be done with being informed. You should get to know that church, and the church should get to know you. While regularly attending non-members of a church may choose to submit to church leaders' teachings, in the most important way, they are continually not submitting to them. By refusing to join the church, they are refusing to come under the church's and the leader's authority. Thus, they are essentially retaining their autonomy, their authority over themselves. They may willingly submit to these leaders, teaching insofar as they like it and agree with it. But what happens if they hear something they don't like, something that hits a little too close to home? They can just get up and leave. Thus, in refusing to join church, they are refusing to obey Hebrews 13, 17, a Hebrew command to submit to the church's leadership. Now, again, that's one of the things that we see in the New Testament is that there's a clear authority in there. There's a clear pattern of authority in there. And so, let's see here. Looking at this biblical evidence together, would you say that local churches have an obligation to practice church membership? Yeah, we do. And here's the thing. If you're part of a biblical church, being under the authority of a God-fearing, Jesus-loving pastor is not a scary thing. I have seen churches where the pastor is my way or the highway. I've seen churches where their pastor are hypocrites. I have seen those churches. And I've also seen churches, like when I was in Mission Dorado under Jonathan Coleman, what I saw there was leadership that I could joyfully submit myself to because he loved Jesus. He loved me. If he rebuked me, it was because it came from scripture, right? And that was a joyful thing. And so this requires personal thought and reflection, but the answer should be yes for all the reasons we just discussed. The answer should be yes for all the reasons that we discussed and that the Bible expects churches will have an inside and an outside. Those inside the church are Christians, and those outside the church aren't. Christians who submit to the church's authority, such as they can even be excluded from the church if they don't repent for unrepentant Christians are to submit to their leader's authority. Again, this is in the context of a healthy Bible-believing church with a pastor that is God-fearing and loves Jesus. For all the reasons and more, every Christian is biblically obligated to be a member of a church. We ought to be members of a church. All of us should be joined to a local church, right? It's just better. And so a church will simply Sorry, let me get to the last part of this real quick. Let's see. If a church doesn't practice church membership, how will that affect the church? A church will simply not be able to practice discipline and to keep people accountable. People have not committed themselves to the church. The church as a whole will simply not be able to hold people accountable to live as Christians. Without church membership, church leaders don't have a clear sense of who they are accountable for. to watch over what church membership leaders are more accurately feel the burden of caring for each and every one of their sheep. In a church that doesn't practice church membership, you're not really sure who's committed, who agrees with the church's beliefs and so on. One of the things, the reason why we have church membership is so that we can have accountability, but also so we could know that the person next to me believes what I believe. The person next to me holds on to the core values of the Christian faith, right? That the word of God's an error, that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, that he died for sin, that the only way to heaven is through Jesus, right? So while Christians should seek to love and reach out to anyone who comes through the doors of a church, church membership fosters trust and deep community Some of you guys have been here at Pathway when it was Westwood, and you guys have been here for a long time. You guys have been through some stuff together. You guys have been through some stuff together. You can probably look at somebody or think of somebody that was there in your darkest moments of your life, right? You don't get that in a church without church membership. Now, I've talked a lot about how church membership keeps us accountable and everything like that, but church membership also does this. It gives us people to surround us when Satan is attacking us. It gives us a community that loves us, that holds us accountable lovingly, but also is there for us when we are going through the junk of life, when we're going through tragedies in our lives. So church membership fosters trust, why? Because we've been through it together, right? And deep community, why? Because you guys have been through it together. I've seen churches go from pastor to pastor to pastor and still remain strong because of the deep community they had with one another. because church members are unified in the faith and have committed to one another. Guys, here it is. When you join a church, you're committing to one another. You're committing to love them, to pray for them, to care for them, to hold them accountable, to comfort them, to be with them in their hurt, And here's the funny thing, we're all come from different walks of life. Probably not one of us have the same backstory, but we're unified in our faith in Christ. That's the overarching thing that unifies us as a church, is our faith in Christ. It's like, you and me might differ on some aspects of life, but you and me know that we have a common faith in Jesus, right? Jews and Gentiles were able to set aside differences, set aside traditions because of their shared faith in Christ. They were unified in Christ through their faith, but also they committed to one another. Do you realize, and I just want to close out with this when I mean committed to one another, committing to our spiritual well-being, committed to holding others more important than ourselves, committed to holding the interests of others above our own, that is commitment. And in Acts chapter, I believe it's six, when they rose up the first deacons, One of the things you see there is the deacons that they chose to fix this problem of the Hellenistic Jewish widows being neglected in the daily distributions. Do you realize that the people that they rose up to be deacons, the majority of them were from that camp, the Hellenistic camp? What did that show? It showed, hey, we're going to take care of them. Hey, we're committed to them. We wanna make sure that we have people there to make sure that they're getting their daily distributions. They're caring for one another, committed to one another in a deep way. And so with that said, I'm gonna close this out in a word of prayer. But I hope that in this message, in this lesson, that you guys have seen the mandate for church membership. It's not only needed, but it's commanded. We as a church are to practice biblical church membership. And so one of the ways that we practice biblical church membership, just a quick application, is that we talk and we examine and then we get to know those who wish to become members. I used to be part of a church that You walk down the aisle, say, I want to be a member, the congregation would vote right then and there for you to be a member. And what happened there was they would not stay more than a month. There would be this constant cycle. of people joining, people leaving, people joining, people leaving. Now, why was that? Because those who said, I want to be a member, did not understand what it meant to be a member of a church. We practice biblical church membership, and one of the ways that we do that is that we make sure those who want to join understand what they're joining. There's the whole point of this whole study here. And my hope is after the seven weeks and this thing is done, you guys will be able to answer the question. If someone asks you, what does it mean to be a member of a church? You guys will know. So let's go ahead and go to the Lord in prayer. Father God, we come before you. We thank you, Lord, for this day. We thank you, Lord, for all your many blessings. We thank you, Lord, for how you've just taken care of us, Lord, and how you've just loved us in such a deep way. We thank you, Lord, again, for the gift of the church. We thank you, Lord, that you have provided for us a community for us to be a part of, Lord. And Lord, the way that you've set it up is just, Lord, according to your will and your design, and it's perfect, Lord, and it's good. Lord, we love you, and we give you all praise and all glory in Jesus Christ's name, I pray, and amen.